With flag gone, MLK Day rally shifts focus

Associated Press

COLUMBIA, S.C.

For the first time in 17 years, civil-rights leaders gathered Monday at the South Carolina Statehouse to pay homage to the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. without the Confederate flag casting a long shadow over them.

The banner was taken down over the summer after police said a young white man who had posed for photos with a rebel flag shot nine black church members to death during a Bible study in Charleston. After the massacre at the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church, Republican Gov. Nikki Haley reversed course and made it a priority for lawmakers to pass legislation to remove the flag.

Across the country, the 30th anniversary of the holiday to honor the civil-rights leader assassinated in 1968 was remembered in different ways. In Michigan, people delivered bottled water to residents of Flint amid the city’s drinking water crisis. In Atlanta, an overflow crowd listened to the nation’s housing secretary talk about the 50th anniversary of King’s visit to Chicago to launch a campaign for fair housing. In Minnesota, a rally against police brutality briefly shut down traffic on a bridge that spans the Mississippi River.

South Carolina NAACP President Lonnie Randolph said the flag’s removal was tangible evidence the state cares about civil rights when pushed hard enough. But he warned there would be other fights ahead.

“I promise you, the people that gather in this building – your building – will do something this year to cause us to return to ensure freedom, justice and equality is made possible for all people,” Randolph said, motioning toward the capitol behind him.